Captor of your soul
by BLT
Summary: Um, something's picking everyone off one by one. It's kinda complicated to explain in one little blurb, so could you just read it, please?
1. Capture

Disclaimer: Paramount owns the characters, not me

Disclaimer: Paramount owns the characters, not me. All I own is my ideas. Please don't sue, I still have to go to college.

Author's note: I just want to say that this could get kind of confusing, but if you wind up totally not getting it keep reading, the whole thing will be explained eventually. Since I have no idea at all where anything is located on this ship, let's just say they did a little redecorating for the sake of this story. Let's also say that Naomi Wildman actually looks as young as she is. Also, this story has a serious case of multiple personality disorder as far a genre goes. It wound up being almost everything that it possibly could be except horror, which ironically enough is the one thing it was supposed to be. Oh well. Now that I've explained myself, enjoy.

Captor of your soul, part 1: caught

Harry had just gotten done with the longest shift of his life. He had never thought that he would be bored out of his mind at the ops station on the bridge of a starship, but then again, there's a first time for everything. He was looking forward to his holodeck time, anything to get his mind off of nothing. Upon reaching the holodeck, he found that a program was already activated. "Computer, who is on holodeck two?" Harry asked. "Holodeck two is unoccupied," the computer replied. "Wonder who's it is," Harry mumbled as he walked onto the holodeck. "Congratulations Harry," said Janeway, "I'm promoting you to Lieutenant." 'That took long enough,' Harry thought. He was startled back to reality when he noticed that the computer had said that there was no one on the holodeck. "What kind of a weird joke is this?" Harry asked himself, "Tom is sure going to get it."

Unbeknownst to Harry, there was someone else on the holodeck besides himself. That being was invisible to sensors and even the human eye if it wanted to be. The being wasn't human, or humanoid for that matter. The being, which called itself Yeti, was after Harry. Harry was trying to end the program and avoid being mobbed by his holographic colleges. Of course, Harry couldn't end the program, Yeti had made sure of that. While Harry was fighting off his friends, Yeti started off his attack. It floated stealthily around the room, judging the best time to make its move. Sneaking around wasn't really necessary, no one could see it anyway, but it just didn't feel right if that little bit of stealth wasn't there. Then, it saw it's moment, and lunged forward, right into Harry. It didn't run into Harry, but actually flew right through him. Harry straightened up into a posture so rigid that it put Seven, the Doctor, and even Tuvok to shame, then started walking out of the holodeck. Lifelessly, Harry went to his quarters and stayed there. 

****

What Harry's body did and what Harry saw were two entirely different things. For all Harry knew, he was still on the holodeck, but with no program, no people, and no way out. A desperate scenario created by Yeti for Harry's enjoyment.

As for Yeti, it looked around the real holodeck, now devoid of any organic life. Satisfied that Harry's soul was secured within itself and his body would not attract attention, it glided through the wall containing the holographic controls and shut down and deleted the program. Yeti then went out in search of more victims.

A few hours and many devoured souls later, Yeti was growing bored. These humans were so pitiful, so easy to catch, so… pathetic. Yeti was disgusted. 'Maybe I could make this more exciting,' it thought and went to seek out Harry's body.

Yeti soon reached his destination and flew into Harry, taking control of his body. Yeti started making a few tentative attempts at moving Harry's body. 

****

Harry took one desperate whack at the panel used to open the door to the jefferies tube that connects to the holodeck. To his surprise, it opened. Harry, not aware that it was only his soul and not his body in the holodeck, peered into the jefferies tube. A moment later, Crewman Terek came crawling out as fast as they could, almost tackling Harry.

Yeti was having trouble controlling Harry's body when suddenly it started convulsing, shaking in some mindless instinct or reflex or overload. Seeing that Harry's body would fizzle out before he could do anything with it, Yeti went out in search of someone with a stronger mind.

Yeti soon found a body that he could commandeer. He flew into engineering and then into Vorik. Vorik's body started walking, with Yeti in control. B'Elanna stopped him and asked, "What are you doing? You couldn't have finished that diagnostic already." Yeti panicked, he didn't know how to make Vorik speak, and if he did, he wouldn't know what to say or how to say it. In desperation, he reached out with a Vulcan nerve pinch and B'Elanna crumpled to the floor. They were in a secluded part of engineering, so, looking around to make sure no one had seen, Yeti left Vorik and stole B'Elanna's soul. Yeti then returned to Vorik and went to another section of engineering. B'Elanna's body made no attempt to return to her quarters.

****

"Where'd everybody go?" Vorik asked himself concerning the fact that he was still in engineering but the dozen of so people that were there also had disappeared. He then caught sight of B'Elanna getting picking herself up off the ground in the same place that Vorik/Yeti had attacked her in the real world. "Lieutenant," Vorik called, trying to get her attention, "Where did you come from and where is everybody else?" B'Elanna, however, heard him and cowered away in fear. "Stay back!" she screamed. "What," asked Vorik, not knowing the course of events that had brought her here. "You attacked me, a, um, Vulcan nerve pinch," accused B'Elanna, "then I was here, with you, and no one else." "I didn't attack you," said Vorik, trying to defend his position, "I was running the diagnostic you asked for, and then I looked up and everyone was gone until you appeared just a second ago." "We can't both be right," B'Elanna pointed out. "Maybe we should quit arguing and try to figure out what happened to everyone else," suggested Vorik. "Just as long as you don't pull any more nerve pinches on me," replied B'Elanna. "I'm telling you, that wasn't me," Vorik exclaimed. "Save it for later," B'Elanna said as they headed for the door.

'Not bad," thought Yeti, examining Vorik's hands, "too bad I can't just take everyone in this section, but they'd get suspicious, oh well, I could use some hard to find souls.' Yeti/Vorik left engineering just as Joe Carey found B'Elanna's body. 'Wonder what happened to her,' Yeti though, laughing to himself.

****

Both B'Elanna and Vorik reached the main door to engineering at roughly the same time and they both almost smashed into the door because it didn't open. After recovering from their initial shock, they moved to try both forms of manual override and eventually brute strength, but the door refused to open. "There's other ways out of here," B'Elanna said as she started moving toward a nearby jefferies tube. When she keyed in the access code, these doors too refused to open. "Someone's been giving these doors a lesson in how to be stubborn," B'Elanna muttered. "Let me try," said Vorik, moving toward the controls. "Yes, in your infinite Vulcan-ness, you'll be to get the…" she trailed off as the door slid open, "how'd you do that?" "I simply keyed in the access code," Vorik replied with half a shrug. They were both still trying to figure out how Vorik had gotten the door open when a very flustered Tal Celes stepped out and exclaimed, "How did you get the door open!" "We were just discussing that," B'Elanna replied. "No, you don't understand," Celes exclaimed, "I've been trying to get out of there for hours, I had all but given up." "That's interesting, because I couldn't get the door open either, only Vorik could," B'Elanna pointed out, happy that she wasn't the only person struggling with the doors. "From that information we can conclude that there is something about me that gives me a certain amount of control over our current situation," Vorik deduced. "Don't get too cocky," replied B'Elanna, "I'm still in charge." Celes, who had finally taken a minute to look around asked, "Where'd everybody go?" The puzzled look she got in reply was less than assuring.

"Carey to sickbay, medical emergency" "Sickbay here, what's the problem?" asked the Doctor. "I just found Lieutenant Torres, she unconscious and I can't wake her up," replied Carey. "I'll arrange for a site to site transport," said the Doctor, "standby." A moment later a ray of blue light surrounded B'Elanna and she disappeared only to reappear in sickbay a few seconds later. The Doctor immediately started scanning her with a tricorder only to find that while she was still alive, B'Elanna had no neural pattern. "Captain," called the Doctor, tapping his combadge, "could you come down to sickbay?" "On my way," Janeway replied. She arrived a few minutes later inquiring, "What is it Doctor?" "Lieutenant Torres was found unconscious in engineering, she has to neural pattern," the Doctor said in a desolate tone, "her soul is gone." After a moment of thoughtful silence, the Captain tapped her combadge and called, "Janeway to Paris, meet me in my ready room."

****

"We should see if we can find anyone else," suggested Vorik. "Agreed," replied B'Elanna, "since you're the only person who can open the doors, we might as well stay here, try to get as much open as you can get to." "Do you have any suggestions on how I can avoid missing anything?" Vorik asked. "Yeah, try following a wall as much as you can on a level, after you've opened everything you can get to go on to the next level you can get to," B'Elanna explained. "Is that an old Maquis trick?" asked Celes with a smile. "No," replied B'Elanna, "but it's a darn good way to get out of a maze." She tried to open the door to the jefferies tube that Vorik had already opened and smiled when it did. "Send anyone you find back here, and take a tricorder so you can chart all the places you can get to," B'Elanna commanded. Vorik nodded and left. "Now then, Celes, how have those sensors been treating you lately?" B'Elanna asked. Celes shrugged, obviously embarrassed. "No need to get uptight," B'Elanna assured her, "What do you say I try to help you turn that tiger into a kitten?"

Janeway got to her ready room a few minutes before Tom did. It gave her time to think over the devastating news that the Doctor had given her. However, Tom arrived before she had the chance to plan out what she was going to tell him. "You called for me Captain?" Tom asked. "Yes, sit down," replied Janeway indicating the sofa. As Tom tentatively sat down he said, "Why do I get the feeling that I'm not going to like what you're going to tell me?" Janeway took a seat next to him and turned to face him. "What I'm going to tell you concerns your wife, B'Elanna," Janeway started, rather lamely in her own opinion. "What is it?" Tom asked, struggling to put up the mask of indifference that always protected him before. "B'Elanna was found unconscious in engineering," said Janeway, "while she's still alive, essentially she is comatose without any hope of ever waking up." "What? Why? What happened? When?" Tom was spitting out questions as quickly as he could talk, all attempts at his mask forgotten. "Tom," said Janeway, trying to calm him down, "We don't know what happened, all we know is, she has no neural pattern." "How is that possible?" asked Tom, not quite accepting what happened. "The Doctor's trying to figure that out now," replied Janeway. "Can I see her?" asked Tom, his voice a little shaky. "I don't see why not," said Janeway, placing a hand on his shoulder as he buried his head in his hands. "We're going to figure out what happened and we're going to get her back somehow," Janeway assured him, hoping what she was saying was true. "Thank you, Captain," said Tom as he left. Janeway sat back against her couch, thinking 'What is out there that can literally steal someone's soul? I need some coffee."

****

"Lieutenant, I have opened as much of the ship as I could," called Vorik, walking toward B'Elanna. His route took him through sensor range of the main door. To his and B'Elanna's surprise, it opened. "We couldn't get that open before right?" asked B'Elanna. "No we couldn't," replied Vorik with as much confusion as a Vulcan is entitled to apparent in his voice. "Good, I thought I might be going crazy," said B'Elanna, "Now then, something must have changed between then and now, but it's a corridor, not much can change, unless…" "There's a person there now and there wasn't before," Celes finished for her from nearby. "There's hope for you yet," praised B'Elanna, "When whatever happened to us happened to us, everyone disappeared except for us. Well, what if everyone else didn't disappear, only we did, and now we're in some alternate reality or something." "Every door I could open had a person behind it," Vorik added, "but I don't see how that will help us." "It might not help us, but it will answer some questions," said B'Elanna, "For all we know, there was no engineering in this reality until Vorik and I were brought here. So it would stand to reason that there was no corridor outside engineering until someone was brought there, hence the reason we couldn't open the door until now. We were all brought here to the exact same place that we were in the other reality, so if people are going to keep being brought here, and Vorik is the only person who can open the doors, he's going to have to keep getting them out. Only problem is that there are a lot more places separated by doors and walls than there are people, we may not be able to get to everyone." "At least we have an idea of what's happening to us, the only things we don't know are why we're here and why Vorik can open the doors," said Celes. "Exactly," said B'Elanna, "I want you to ask everyone here where they were when they were brought here and at about what time, put it in a tricorder and see if you can find any pattern." "Why me?" asked Celes. "I'd say it's high time you got a real project," replied B'Elanna, "besides, there are restricted areas down that corridor and more direct routes to personal quarters, all places that you need access codes to get into, codes that Vorik doesn't have." As Vorik and B'Elanna left, Celes looked fearfully at the groups of people before moving into their midst to begin her task.

Tom paused outside of sickbay trying to gather enough nerve to open the door. Finally suppressing the butterflies in his stomach, he stepped in range of the door. As it slid open to reveal the interior of sickbay, all hope of having the courage to even get through the door was lost. The feeling was accentuated by the butterflies in his stomach not only flying around, but also doing gymnastics. Making a futile attempt to control his shaking body, Tom slinked inside like a teenager who knew he had been caught sneaking out. Luckily for Tom, the Doctor was in his office and hadn't seen his rather undignified entrance. Taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm his frazzled nerves, Tom finally looked over to where B'Elanna was laying on a biobed. When he saw her still form, all of the dignity he had managed to muster up left in a fleeting hurry as the brutal reality of the situation finally set in. Tom ran unceremoniously to her side. He managed to take her hand and kiss it before a wave of grief swept over him and he collapsed on the floor. The Doctor, who had been aware of Tom's presence from the moment he walked in ever though he didn't let on, now came over to find Tom curled up in a ball and sitting against the wall. Unsure of exactly how to proceed, the Doctor simply offered his hand. Tom looked up and took the proffered extremity. The Doctor pulled Tom to his feet and guided him to the nearest biobed. "If there is anything I can do…" the Doctor tailed off. Tom simply nodded, staring at B'Elanna's still form. The Doctor left and came back a minute later with the chair from his office which he put next to B'Elanna's biobed and gestured for Tom to sit down in it. As Tom got up off the biobed and sat down in the chair, he said, "There is something you can do, you can figure out what happened to her and see if you can get her back, or at least make it so no one else ends up like this." The Doctor tried a reassuring smile and failed miserably, so instead he patted Tom's arm and said, "I'll find you some answers." It tore the Doctor up inside to see Tom like this, especially since he knew he couldn't do anything about it. 'Maybe I can get someone who can,' he thought as he stepped into his office. Even though he wasn't sure if Tom wanted anyone to be brought into this right now the Doctor tapped his combadge and said, "Doctor to Ensign Kim." When there was no answer, he said, "Ensign, respond." There was still no reply. "Where are these people when I need them?" the Doctor muttered, "Computer, locate Ensign Kim." "Ensign Kim is in his quarters," the computer replied crisply. The Doctor absent-mindedly made his way to his chair and sat down on thin air, which very quickly turned into floor. He found himself in an undignified heap on the floor. 'The things I go through for these people,' he thought as he picked himself up off the floor. "Computer, create a holographic replica of the chair that is usually in my office," the Doctor called. He smiled as it shimmered into existence. Sitting down, he turned his attention to the monitor on his desk. His smile quickly faded when he saw the information there. "What?" he asked himself, "He's supposed to be on duty in astrometrics right now, what's he doing in his quarters?" A hypothesis already forming in his mind, the Doctor called, "Computer, monitor the movements of every crewmember and in five minutes, tell me how many people have not moved at all." Bringing up his scans of B'Elanna on his monitor, he went over them again, looking for details which might have slipped by him the first time over. He was appalled by what he found. Looking through the glass at Tom holding B'Elanna's hand and stroking her hair, the Doctor could hardly believe that part of the story was linked to a Vulcan nerve pinch.

****

B'Elanna and Vorik were n the process of trying to open the doors that connected to the corridor that they had just been able to get to. "I can't help but wonder why we haven't seen whoever is in here," Vorik thought out loud. "It's a long corridor, how about you keep trying the doors while I go look for them," B'Elanna replied and disappeared down the corridor. Vorik continued not to quickly onward without any luck. 'These are all storage rooms, no one is usually in here, but if someone is, I do have to get them out,' he thought, becoming bored of his tedious task. He was about to push the call button on a turbolift when the door opened. Confused, he looked inside and found the turbolift was empty. "What the…" he muttered, resisting the urge to scratch his head. When he inspected the escape hatch, he found it had not been opened. Vorik shrugged and made a mental note to tell B'Elanna when he caught up to her.

B'Elanna was beginning to wonder how many places this guy could be. It's a corridor not a maze, although the same could not be said for the rest of the ship. As she continued her search, something caught her eye and made her do a double take in Question. She thought that a jefferies tube door had opened as she walked past. This was strange on two accounts; first, you usually have to push a button to open a jefferies tube, and second, she couldn't open doors. However, as she backed up, it opened again. Deciding to investigate, she climbed in. It did not take her long to realize that there was no one in there with her. "Where did that Vulcan learn how to count," she muttered. As she started crawling out she started thinking out loud, "Wait, this is a big corridor, so when whoever was brought here was taken here it would stand to reason that some of the doors were open because of somebody else and those doors open by sensors and not commands." "Sometimes my own brilliance scares me," said B'Elanna as she stepped out the jefferies tube and into Chell. "Yes, your brilliance scares me too sometimes," he remarked snobbily. "Fancy meeting you here," B'Elanna replied, then after a pause exclaimed, "that was insubordination, Crewman." "My most humble apologies," Chell replied. "Forgiven," said B'Elanna, crossing her arms, "is there anyone in this corridor with you?" "No one, where is everybody?" Chell asked. "We're trying to figure that out now," replied B'Elanna, withholding the whole truth, "report to engineering and wait for further instructions. Chell turned and walked off and left B'Elanna to slap herself in the face. What she didn't realize was that Vorik had caught up to her just as Chell left. "Is there a problem, Lieutenant?" he asked. 'Did I take bad timing pills this morning?" B'Elanna thought, but said, "No, um, let's keep checking." As they moved on down the corridor, B'Elanna couldn't help but think, 'Caught twice acting less than professional in front of my subordinates in five minutes, I'm doing really bad today.'

Captain Janeway walked into sickbay, and after one sympathetic look at B'Elanna with Tom sitting next to her, disappeared into the Doctor's office. "Ah, Captain, thank you for being so prompt," said the Doctor, trying to sound pleasant even though his face was grim. "Your call sounded urgent," Janeway replied, "have you found something?" "Unfortunately, I have," said the Doctor. "Unfortunately?" echoed the Captain. "You might want to sit down for this Captain. It would seem that a part of B'Elanna's condition is caused by a Vulcan nerve pinch," the Doctor explained. "A Vulcan nerve pinch?" Janeway echoed thoughtfully, which earned her a rather strange look from the Doctor. "Um," she continued, trying to redeem herself, "It couldn't of been Tuvok, he was on the bridge the whole shift, I was there. So that leaves Vorik." "But that doesn't account for the fact that B'Elanna has no neural pattern, a nerve pinch knocks you out, it doesn't steal your soul," the Doctor pointed out. "Then Vorik is only half the story," Janeway moaned. "Maybe not exactly," replied the Doctor, "There may be reason to believe that Vorik has been possessed." "Possessed?" Janeway asked, then mentally chastised herself. The Doctor, fighting to suppress a smile, replied, "Internal sensor records show that he left engineering before his shift ended and no report shows that he was given permission. Since then he has been wandering, seemingly aimlessly, around the ship. Vorik would never do that." "And whatever's possessed him has taken her soul," Janeway finished, finally catching on. The computer interrupted saying, "Request complete, fifty seven crewmembers have not changed position during the allotted time; Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres, Ensign Harry Kim, Crewman Chell, Crewman Tal Celes, Ensign…" The Doctor pushed a button on his computer to shut off the vocal interface. "Fifty seven is too many people to be a coincidence," he pointed out. "I thought we already established that it wasn't a coincidence," the Captain replied with the same strange look he had given her a few minutes earlier. "I'll send a medical team out to retrieve the effected people," the Doctor said, searching fruitlessly for some excuse on his desk to keep from looking the Captain in the eye. "I'll have Tuvok send a security team to apprehend Vorik," Janeway replied, "In the meantime, try to find a way to get these people back."

"You'll never guess what I learned how to do in school, Mommy!" Naomi Wildman exclaimed. "Let's see, stop a warp core breach? Defeat the Borg? Negotiate a peace treaty? Make spaghetti?" Samantha Wildman asked playfully, all her suggestions receiving no as an answer. "I learned how to word a transporter!" Naomi cried, jumping up and down with excitement. "A transporter huh?" Samantha replied, "Next time we have an away mission, I know who I want in charge of the transporter room." They reached their quarters a few minutes later. As soon as the door opened, Naomi dove at a picture that was lying on the table and shielded it from view. "Don't look," she commanded, "it's supposed to be a surprise." "Alright, I won't peek," Samantha replied, sitting down on the couch as Naomi got out her crayons and started coloring the picture. Samantha smiled and reached for a padd that was lying on the table. She was soon reading Chicken Soup for the Mother's soul CCXXXVI (236). Outside the Wildman's quarters, Yeti, still in Vorik's body, was grumbling, concerning the people he had captured, "How could they get to each other? Why aren't they going crazy? They have to be insane before they are of any good to me!" Leaving Vorik looking like he was working at a nearby terminal, Yeti set off to look for another victim and happened upon the Wildman's quarters. Slipping inside, Yeti surveyed the room quickly. He soon saw the perfect victim; she even had her head in her arm so she wouldn't move any when he took her soul. Seizing the opportunity, Yeti flew through Naomi's head and headed back to Vorik. A few minutes later, Neelix called Samantha over the com. The chirp of her com-badge caused her to jump and hide her book, replacing it with the readings from a decoy sensor diagnostic. After regaining her composure, she responded saying, "Yes Neelix?" "I believe we had a date for dinner?" Neelix replied. "Is it eighteen-hundred already? I'm sorry Neelix, Naomi and I will be right there," she said cutting the link, "You heard him Naomi, time for dinner." Naomi, however, didn't answer. Figuring that she had fallen asleep, Samantha walked over and shook her to no avail. Samantha then tickled her, only to find that this was no joke. Lifting her eyelids, Samantha was horrified to find that Naomi's eyes were clouded over. Gathering Naomi in her arms, she transported herself and Naomi directly to sickbay. By the time she got there, there were tears welled up in her eyes. The Doctor immediately came up and started scanning Naomi with a tricorder and asking what happened at the same time. "I'm not sure, one minute she was coloring and the next she just wasn't there." "Not there would be an accurate description," the Doctor replied, taking Naomi from Samantha's arms and putting her on a biobed, "While all of her vital signs are fine, it would seem that her soul has bee stolen." "How is that possible?" Samantha asked. "We're trying to figure that out," the Doctor replied. "Wait, this has happened before?" said Samantha. "Unfortunately, yes," he replied, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "Her condition is stable, as fat as her body goes. You can stay here or leave and I'll give you a leave of absence form duty if you wish." Samantha nodded and walked past him to stand at the foot of her daughter's bed, the harsh reality starting to sink in. Tapping her combadge she said, "Wildman to Neelix, I'm afraid we're not going to be able to come to dinner tonight." "Alright," Neelix replied, "What happened." "I'd rather not explain right now," Samantha said, her voice shaky, "Wildman out." The Doctor's and Samantha's conversation had aroused Tom attention, so when Samantha got done talking to Neelix, he stood up and walked over to her. Samantha sensing a presence turned to find Tom next to her. "Why are you here?" she asked, noting his blotchy face and disheveled appearance and looking behind him at the person on the biobed. "Well, uh, you see," he stammered in reply, gesturing behind him. Samantha walked past him to get a better look. "Oh my goodness," she exclaimed finally being able to see who it was, "Lieutenant, I'm so sorry." "It's okay," he replied, "I'll be alright, eventually. I'm the one who should be sorry for you." Samantha finally broke down and cried, "She was only five, she didn't even get the chance to really live yet. To think that after all she's been through, this would he her undoing." Pulling her into a comforting hug, Tom said, "They're going to figure out what happened to them and maybe even get them back." "Maybe we can help," Samantha exclaimed. "I think we're both too close to the situation to be of any help to anyone, but if you do come up with anything I'm sure that the Captain or the Doctor would be glad to hear it," Tom explained solemnly. "I've got an idea," Samantha replied. "Well figure this out," Tom said, giving her a pitiful attempt at a reassuring smile. Samantha returned the favor and then left.

****

"That's the last door," Vorik said after he and B'Elanna had come as far as they could down the corridor, "A while ago, I found a turbolift that opened, but there was no one in it." "A turbolift?" B'Elanna exclaimed, "Did you say a turbolift? Let's go!" They reached the turbolift a few minutes later, with B'Elanna dragging Vorik behind her. They scrambled inside and B'Elanna called out, "Deck…" "Wait!" Vorik commanded, which earned him a warning look from B'Elanna, "What if there isn't a turboshaft?" "Then it won't go won't go, if we've learned anything it's that. Deck nine," said B'Elanna. When there was no resounding hum of the turbolift moving or of the computer acknowledging her request, she tried manipulating the manual controls, still to no avail. Sinking down against the wall, she muttered, "Of course not, that would've been too easy." "When you leaned against the wall it usually would make a hollow sound, but it didn't, it was like there was something blocking the sound," Vorik said thoughtfully. "That's weird, so there's nothing on the other side but that nothing is solid, er, I'm confused," B'Elanna moaned. "Maybe we're just thinking too hard, perhaps whatever universe this is ends right on the other side of these walls," Vorik pointed out. "You're probably right," B'Elanna replied, "We're not going to be able to use the turbolifts, people usually don't go crawling around in turboshafts when the turbolifts are online, at least not if they value their life." "Guess I'd better keep checking jefferies tubes," Vorik groaned. "Jefferies tubes!" B'Elanna exclaimed, "The jefferies tube I was standing in front of when you caught up to me, we missed it! Let's go!" B'Elanna tore out of the turbolift with Vorik in tow once again. Upon reaching the jefferies tube in question, B'Elanna exclaimed, "Do your magic." The outermost door opened unsurprisingly when they entered range and they climbed in. "Any idea why the computer isn't working?" Vorik asked. "As a matter of fact, I do," replied B'Elanna, "The room where the main computer is holds only the main computer. Unless there's something wrong with it and there almost never is, there's no point in anyone going in there. So the main computer isn't working because in this reality there is no main computer." They both didn't expect to get very far, so when they found themselves at a junction with a ladder, they couldn't help but be amazed. "Maybe there was a diagnostic on the astrometrics sensors going on when these people were taken," B'Elanna said as soon as a person they had just found was out of hearing range. "I would think you would know that for sure," Vorik pointed out. "Well pardon me, Mr. High and Mighty. I know that there was one scheduled for today, just not when. Ops is in charge of the astrometrics sensors, I only fix them when they get messed up. Not to mention the fact that I don't know when these people were brought here," B'Elanna grumbled. Soon, they reached deck nine and made it to the corridor without a hitch. "That was almost too easy," Vorik said in awe. "I suppose they were keeping the doors open so they could talk to each other without using the com system," B'Elanna replied, "Why argue? We got here. Now then, personal quarters." "How are we going to do this?" Vorik asked. "It'd probably be easiest if you key my override code into the access panel by the door," B'Elanna replied. After B'Elanna gave him her code and vowed to change it as soon as they got out of this, Vorik began trying to open the doors and B'Elanna wandered a little way down the corridor. A noise caused B'Elanna to pause. When she heard it again she called, "Vorik, come here, I think K can hear someone in here." "I thought these walls were sound proof," Vorik said, slightly confused. "Well they're not, I learned that the hard way," B'Elanna replied, then had to use all the mental discipline she had to keep from banging her head against a wall. "Oops," Vorik muttered, "sometimes I sing Bajoran opera while I'm in my quarters." It took more willpower that B'Elanna knew she had to keep her mouth from dropping open. "Let's, um, let's get this door open," said B'Elanna. As Vorik started manipulating the controls, it finally occurred to B'Elanna who's quarters this was. With a start, she placed the sound she had heard, a child crying. "Oh God, it's Naomi Wildman," she gasped, "Vorik, hurry!" As soon as the door opened she stepped inside with as much grace and calm as she could muster during an adrenaline rush. What she found caused her heart to sink. There on the floor was little Naomi curled up in a ball, sobbing uncontrollably. Approaching quietly and crouching down next to her, B'Elanna said, "Hey sweetie, what's wrong?" Naomi looked up, tears sliding down her cheeks. After sniffing loudly, with a shaky voice Naomi replied, "I was coloring and when I looked up my mommy was gone and I didn't hear her leave, she always tells me if she's going somewhere. And the computer didn't answer, so I couldn't find out where she went. When I tried to leave the door wouldn't open." B'Elanna went over to the table and got Naomi's Flotter doll. Sitting on the sofa and pulling Naomi up on her lap, B'Elanna gave her the doll and a hug. Pulling their faces so close that Naomi's spiked forehead was almost touching her own ridged one, B'Elanna said, "We think we've been transported to an alternate universe, but we're going to get back somehow. We'll find your mommy, but for now you can stay with me, okay?" Naomi nodded. Wiping the tears off Naomi's face, B'Elanna couldn't help but admire how brave Naomi was trying to be. Since she could have been twenty for all that she had experienced, it was sometimes hard to remember that Naomi was only five years old. 'The same age I was when my father left,' B'Elanna couldn't help but think, 'and now here she is without the slightest clue as to where the only relative she's ever known is. As unwilling as I am to admit it, I couldn't have gotten through the loss of my father if my mother wasn't there, maybe I can d the same for Naomi.' Standing up with Naomi in her arms, B'Elanna walked over to Vorik who had come in a little after her and said, "Keep trying to get people out, we're going back to engineering." Vorik nodded in acknowledgement but kept staring strait forward. Following his gaze, B'Elanna found what had captured Vorik's attention so fully. It was the stars, of lack thereof. On the other side of the windows was only inky blackness with out the welcome respite of the stars. "That's rather disconcerting," B'Elanna groaned, "Um, don't let it get to you." B'Elanna and Naomi started toward engineering, leaving Vorik to take one last look out the window. Once they were in the corridor, Naomi, still in B'Elanna's arms, asked, "Why aren't there any stars?" "Well, we think that the alternate universe we're in is only as big as the parts of the ship that people are in. Since we we're at warp before, there wasn't anybody outside and there probably won't be. So until we get back, there won't be any stars," B'Elanna replied as they reached the jefferies tube the B'Elanna and Vorik had come by, "I can't carry you through the jefferies tubes, you'll have to crawl for yourself." Naomi nodded and B'Elanna set her down. "What's wrong with the turbolifts?" Naomi asked as she crawled into the jefferies tube. "We think they don't have a turboshaft for them to run in," B'Elanna replied. "I don't think I've ever been to engineering, what's it like?" Naomi wondered aloud. "You'll be able to see for yourself as soon as we get there," said B'Elanna, relieved that Naomi's mind seemed to be off of her mother. "Did my Mom work there?" Naomi asked, somewhat tearfully. After B'Elanna finished chewing herself out for speaking too soon, she replied, "No, your mother is an xenobiologist, she works in sickbay." "A xenbilogst?" Naomi asked, stumbling over the words. "Xenobiologist, she studies alien species," B'Elanna replied with a smile. "Maybe she's somewhere here too, could we check?" Naomi asked. "We could try," replied B'Elanna. Tapping her combadge, B'Elanna called, "Torres to…" She stopped because there was no resounding click of a connection being made. B'Elanna tried again with the same result. "I'm sorry Naomi," B'Elanna said sadly, "the com system isn't working." "But then I can't find out what happened to her, and she can't know that I'm okay," Naomi moaned, completely crying once again. "She might still be on the real Voyager and they're trying to figure out what happened to us and how to get us back," B'Elanna replied as they reached a ladder. "You really think so?" Naomi wondered aloud. "Well, there has to be at least thirty of us here, not accounting for everyone that we haven't gotten to or can't get to. Someone would have noticed that we're missing," B'Elanna replied upon reaching the bottom of the ladder, "Come on, engineering is just through that jefferies tube."

"Tuvok to all security personnel, apprehend Ensign Vorik, his location is deck two section thirteen, near the mess hall." "I'm coming with you, Tuvok," Chakotay said and they left the bridge together. Arriving a few minutes later at the corridor just outside the mess hall, they found that security teams hadalready surrounded Vorik. "Keep your phasers on stun," Tuvok commanded. Chakotay started walking toward Vorik slowly and unarmed. "Stand down, Vorik," he said. Yeti wasn't sure what to do. He couldn't understand these people's language, end even if he did, he still didn't know how to make Vorik speak. Seeing no other choice, Yeti left Vorik. Since Yeti didn't bother to make to necessary muscles work to keep Vorik standing, Vorik's body stayed upright for a moment, then seemed to loose it's balance, toppling right into Chakotay, knocking him to the floor. "Not cool," was all Chakotay could get out before Yeti swept through him and stole his soul. Seeing that neither of the two men were moving, Tuvok bent over and scanned them with a tricorder. Not exactly sure what he was looking at because the Doctor and the Captain hadn't told the crew at large what was going on, Tuvok had them both transported to sickbay. Dismissing the security personnel, Tuvok walked off with the objective of finding out exactly what was going on. Yeti, having had a taste of what it was like to have a physical body wasn't about to give it up easily. Seeing another one of the species he could control, soon caught up with Tuvok and replaced Tuvok's consciousness with his own. Happy to once again control a physical body, Yeti/Tuvok walked off.


	2. Plans of escape

Disclaimer and other such delights, see part I

Disclaimer and other such delights, see part I

Captor of your soul, part II: Plans of escape

The chime to the Captain's ready room sounded as Janeway was just about to sit down with a freshly replicated cup of coffee. "Yes, come in," she called. Janeway looked up from taking a long sip of coffee to find a very distraught looking Samantha Wildman standing on the other side of her desk. "What's the matter, Ensign?" she asked. "The Doctor may not have told you this yet, but Naomi is now in the same condition the Lieutenant Torres is in," Samantha replied. "Oh, Samantha," Janeway gasped, "I'm so sorry, is there anything I can do?" "Lieutenant Paris said that he and I are too close to the situation to be of any real help, but he also said that if I had any suggestions you'd probably want to hear them?" Samantha said tentatively. "Go on," Janeway urged. "I have a couple of ideas; the first is to recruit the help of Crewman Harren. He's a theorist and he might be able to come up with an idea of what's going on. The second idea is to tell everybody what's happening. I think there might be a possibility that they have been taken somewhere and not just erased. This will probably keep happening so if the people that are already there know what's going on it will at least make it so everybody knows what's happening," Samantha explained. "Both good ideas, I'll be sure to put them to use, in the meantime, is there anything I can do for you?" Janeway asked again. "I'd just like to get Naomi back," Samantha replied. The Captain gave her a reassuring smile for fear that anything she said might be counterproductive due to the tone of her voice. As Samantha left, Janeway put her head in her hands and let out a ragged sob before collecting herself enough to back to her cup of coffee. Samantha Wildman stepped onto the nearest turbolift and called out, "Sickbay… belay that, deck nine." Samantha soon found herself outside of her quarters. Keying in the entry code, she stepped inside and Got Naomi's Flotter doll of the sofa. She was just about to leave when something made her go back. She walked over to the table that Naomi was coloring on. Picking up the picture Samantha found a beautiful rose, a rose to be more exact, and a columbine as the background to the picture. Comparing the rose to the one that was dried and hanging on the wall in a picture frame, she saw the same rose only more full of life. It was the rose her husband had given to her just after they had gotten married. Looking above the flowers she saw the words, "I love you mommy." Below that was a picture of Voyager with the Golden Gate Bridge behind it. In front and to the side of Voyager Naomi, Samantha, and her husband, all with big smiles on their faces. 'Oh goodness,' Samantha thought, 'this is a picture of us when we get home. And she is lying in sickbay, and she may never get to see another day.' Samantha suddenly couldn't keep it all in anymore. She dropped to her knees and all the emotions she had kept inside all day came spilling out as tears. Unstoppable, uncontrollable tears. When she finally got control of herself, Samantha got up and walked over to the bathroom. Looking into the mirror, she winced at her own red and blotchy face. Splashing water on her face, letting out a ragged sigh, and picking up the Flotter doll again, she left the room with the destination being sickbay.

****

Naomi crawled out of the jefferies tube with B'Elanna a few seconds behind her. Handing Naomi her Flotter doll, which she had been holding since they started climbing down the ladder, B'Elanna said, "Welcome to engineering." Naomi, after taking a good look around, shied away and hugged B'Elanna around one leg burying her head in B'Elanna's hip, mumbling, "I didn't know it is so big." Though trying to decide if she wished she were shorter of taller, B'Elanna had to agree with her. Engineering could seem a little imposing, especially considering that the biggest room the little girl had ever been in was probably the mess hall. "Too bad I can't get into my office, she'd probably feel more comfortable in there,' B'Elanna thought, 'If only I could replicate her something to play with. Just a second…' Picking up Naomi, B'Elanna walked over to where Tal Celes was standing. "Report, Crewman," she asked. "I've asked everyone where they were and what time they were brought here, it appears to be random," Celes said while studying the records on a console. "Figures," B'Elanna muttered. Celes looked up at B'Elanna and after seeing Naomi had to work to keep from letting her jaw drop. B'Elanna could see that the only thing keeping Celes from commenting was Starfleet protocol, so she said, "You can speak freely." Breaking out of her trance, Celes said, "I'm sorry, with all due respect, I just never thought of you as the motherly type." "I didn't either," B'Elanna replied with a smile, "I'm not sure whether it's a good thing or a bad thing that Tom isn't here to see this." After an awkward silence, B'Elanna said, "This might seem like a strange question, but how long have we been here?" After failing miserably at trying to control a quizzical look, Celes replied, "From the time you got me out of the jefferies tube, about seven hours, why?" "I just wanted to check that with someone," B'Elanna said, "It occurred to me that I'm not hungry or thirsty. At first I thought that I might be too distracted to notice, but I've been paying attention." "That's more than just a little weird," Celes said thoughtfully, "How can we be here and yet be sustained without food?" "What if we're not really here?" B'Elanna thought out loud, "Like it's some kind of neural interface." "But it seems so real," Celes exclaimed. "The holodeck would seem pretty real if you didn't know it was fake," B'Elanna pointed out. "That's kind of disconcerting," said Celes, looking like she had seen a ghost. "We can figure this out later," said B'Elanna, becoming aware of the child that was still in her arms. Celes took the hint and nodded. B'Elanna and Naomi walked off.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" B'Elanna asked. Naomi shrugged and said, "I wouldn't mind a tour of engineering." "Well you've come to the right place, let me see if I can find someone to give you that tour," said B'Elanna, setting Naomi down and taking a scrutinizing look around the room. "I think I might have found the perfect person," she continued, giving Naomi an intimidating look. B'Elanna suddenly smiled and said, "Me! Looks like you've come to the right person too. Who better to give you a tour of engineering than the chief engineer herself?" Naomi giggled. "Now then," said B'Elanna, "do you want to walk or have me carry you?" "I'll walk," Naomi replied. As B'Elanna started the tour, she couldn't help but think, 'Good thing I didn't have to carry her, I thought my arms were going to fall off last time. When did I become such a weakling? It's time I got back to that Klingon battle simulation." Secretly, whenever Naomi's back was turned to her, B'Elanna would try to stretch out the cramps in her arms. "And last but not least, we have the warp core," said B'Elanna a little while later, "It powers the ship and the warp engines that make it so we can go faster than light with a matter antimatter reaction. The blue swirls you see are antimatter hydrogen. Any questions?" "What happens when the warp core breaches?" asked Naomi. "You sure you want to know?" B'Elanna questioned. Naomi nodded. "Okay, but if you want me to stop, just let me know," B'Elanna began hesitantly, "I suppose I should explain antimatter first. Regular matter has positive protons and negative electrons. Antimatter has negative protons and positive electrons. When a regular matter element meets and antimatter element of the same type, they turn into energy. I'm not just talking enough to run a light bulb for a couple of hours, energy from just a couple of atoms can power the ship for a month. So when the warp core breaches, the antimatter inside can escape. The problem is that regular hydrogen is everywhere, so when they come together, the energy is enough to destroy the ship. What we usually do to stop a core breach is eject the core. There isn't enough hydrogen in space to cause any real problems. There you have it, a warp core breach." "Wow," Naomi exclaimed, "that's so cool!" "I'm not sure that cool is the word to describe a core breach," B'Elanna pointed out. "That's just because you're the person who has to deal with it," Naomi replied. B'Elanna didn't have a chance to defend her position because Vorik came up behind her. Pretending that she hadn't noticed, she said to Naomi, "hold that thought." Then B'Elanna whirled on Vorik and exclaimed, "I told you not to do that!" "Do what?" Vorik asked calmly. "Not to self, you can't startle a Vulcan," B'Elanna muttered under her breath. Out loud she said, "Sneak up behind me like that. Now then, you got back sooner than I expected." "I can no longer open the doors," Vorik replied. "How can you be so sure?" B'Elanna asked. "I spoke with Crewman Dalby through a door, but could not open it," answered Vorik. "Well this just keeps getting better and better," B'Elanna muttered. "My apologies, Lieutenant," Vorik said. "We didn't even know what gave you that ability in the first place, it couldn't have been you fault that you lost it," B'Elanna replied. A sudden idea struck her and B'Elanna called out, "Everybody listen up. Most of you don't know what's going on here, so I'll give you the general idea, we are in a different reality. We don't know why or where or how. We used to be able to expand the places we can get to, now we can'. So we are going to establish communications with the bridge. The problem is that we have no main computer, and most likely will never get it. As you know internal the computer controls communications. We will have to route this through independent systems. Be creative, don't be afraid to bounce ideas off each other. Think outside of the box. Forget protocol, going by the book isn't going to get us out of this. Work with people who specialize in different sections, they compliment each other when we have the full crew and entire ship at out disposal, they will compliment each other here too. Report anything you might find to me. I'll be here to give and take suggestions. Just because I am in charge, doesn't mean that I am above you don't be afraid to talk to me. Well, let's get to work." After surveying the people group themselves into teams to begin discussing options, B'Elanna couldn't help but mutter to Naomi, "I wonder if this is how the people involved with Apollo thirteen felt when they had to make and air filter out of supplies that they had around the ship."

"So you really think they might be alive somewhere?" Janeway asked the Doctor via the monitor on the desk in her ready room. "Yes, if their neural patterns had been degraded it would have left some type of residual mark. They're no suppressed or not functioning either, a very advanced scan of my own creation told me that. It's almost as if their souls have been extracted somehow," the Doctor replied, his face grim. "Any ideas as to how?" Janeway asked. "Not really, it does seem that Vorik was possessed, however. Even though only five people had a Vulcan nerve pinch, that is an act that Vorik would never perform willingly. Also, Vorik has evidence of neurological trauma, something that no one except for Harry Kim has. Other than that, he is in the state as everyone else," replied the Doctor. "Harry has trauma too?" Janeway questioned. "Yes, and a lot worse than Vorik's. I would suspect that whatever possessed Vorik tried to take control of Harry, but it didn't work," said the Doctor, "I had to repair a lot of damage but he'll be okay if we get him back." "It's like someone kicked Vorik out of his own body and took control of it," Janeway thought aloud, "how many people has this happened to?" "Seventy one, I've had to convert the mess hall into a second sickbay, but we're running out of room," said the Doctor. "Where have you been finding these people?" asked Janeway. "In their quarters, which is a strange thing because some of them were on duty at the time. But everyone who was nerve pinched wasn't in their quarters," replied the Doctor thoughtfully. "Leave the people in their quarters there unless you can help them," said the Captain, "If that's all I'd like you to keep working on this. And Doctor, dot try to be more prompt in telling me of your findings." "I've had the computer monitor everyone's movements and tell me of everyone who hasn't moved for more than five minutes, I could have the names sent to your computer," the Doctor offered. "Make it so," replied Janeway and she cut the link. After taking a moment to massage her forehead and take a sip of now lukewarm coffee, Janeway tapped her combadge and called, "Janeway to Crewman Harren, could you come to my ready room." "On my way," he replied. Kathryn couldn't help but smile at how nervous he sounded. Harren arrived a few minutes later, tentatively stepping inside. "You called for me?" he offered. "Yes, sit down," Janeway replied. After he sat down he started rambling, "If this is about my actions during an away mission, you have to understand that…" Janeway cut him off with a wave of her hand and said, "ancient history, I have called you here on a completely different matter. You're a theorist, correct?" At a nod from Harren, she went on, "I have a situation for you to theorize." She handed him a padd that had all the data they had collected thus far. After looking at the information for a minute Harren asked, "Permission to freely?" "Granted," Janeway replied. "With all due respect, this is really weird," Harren blurted out. "Without wanting to sound too harsh, tell me something I don't know," Janeway said, once again massaging her forehead. "I'm assuming that you want me to try to figure out what is doing this and how they're doing it," Harren said. "Any ideas?" asked the Captain. "The best I can come up with is that what we're dealing with here is something supernatural," Harren theorized. "A ghost?" asked Janeway, slightly confused. "In essence. This thing has been on the ship for hours and no one has seen it. It can also probably pass through solid matter, like walls or people. I say that because there are no signs of trauma in most of them, if it had taken their neural patterns from outside of their head it would have left some type of mark. These abilities are almost like…" Harren paused for a second, "like those of a hologram." "You're not suggesting…" Janeway trailed off. "I don't think we should rule out the possibility that it could be the Doctor, or any other hologram," Harren stated flatly. "But that would never work, there are no holoprojectors in most of the places that the attacks have taken place and the Doctor's mobile emitter can't pass through solid matter, no to mention the fact that someone would notice it," Janeway pointed out. "So that puts us back at something supernatural," Harren moaned. "At least it's a start," Janeway reassured him, "I'll send you information as soon as we get it, see if you can come up with anything more." "Thank you Captain," Harren said as he got up and left. Janeway sighed and took a sip of coffee, and grimaced at how cold it was. She got up to get a fresh cup, then started writing exactly how she was going to tell the crew what was happening.

Samantha Wildman arrived at sickbay after wandering not so aimlessly around the ship for what seemed like an eternity. She stepped inside to find that sickbay was no longer the calm, quiet place that it had been when she left. There was now medical personnel running busily around and all of the beds were filled along with enough cots that it was difficult to find a place to walk. As she made her way across the room, she almost stumbled over Harry Kim, lying on a cot, looking like he was in pretty bad shape. Looking up at Tom, Samantha felt a twinge of sadness for the poor man. He lost his best friend all in the same day. Taking Flotter, which she was squeezing so had that if the doll were alive it would be dead, and setting him next to Naomi in her bed, Samantha walked over to Tom. Finding him asleep, Samantha shook him with the intention of waking him long enough to tell him to sleep in his quarters, but he didn't wake up. Confusion etched on her face, Samantha got a medical tricorder and scanned Tom with it. She was shocked to find that his soul was gone. She sighed and flipped the tricorder shut, and walked over to the Doctor's office. Stepping inside, she said, "Tom's gone." "Gone, gone or just gone?" asked the Doctor, holographic adrenaline rushing though his program. "Just gone, I was wondering if anything strange, or stranger than usual happened to him while I was gone," Samantha replied. The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief and said, "He was sitting there, then they brought in Harry and he kind of freaked out. About a minute ago Tuvok came in and touched him on the shoulder, and that's about it. They got Vorik by the way." "Oh please," cried Samantha, throwing up her arms. "What?" asked the Doctor. "Oh, nothing, but next time you're planning to pull your head out of your rear, run the most detailed bioscan you can get with internal sensors on Tuvok," Samantha moaned. "What are you getting at?" the Doctor questioned. "Think about it for a minute, you'll figure it out," Samantha replied, "I'm going to talk to the Captain." Samantha left the Doctor with a definite dazed and confused look on his face.

Kathryn was just completing what she was going to say when the chime on the door rang. "Come in," she called. Looking up, Janeway saw Samantha Wildman walk into the room. "I believe that whatever possessed Vorik is now possessing Tuvok," Samantha said. "Do you have any evidence?" Janeway asked cautiously, knowing she was tickling the tail of the dragon. "I supposed it's not exactly what you would call hard evidence, but Tuvok was on the security team that apprehended Vorik. Whatever possessed Vorik went somewhere, and I don't think it was just around the ship. Also, the Doctor said that Tuvok came into sickbay and touched Tom's shoulder, the next thing I knew was that Tom no longer had a soul," Samantha explained. "This is all pretty far-fetched," Janeway said, "A good scientist doesn't jump to conclusions." "But a good scientist also doesn't ignore evidence until they are absolutely sure that something is true," Samantha pointed out. "You got me, any suggestions as to what I should do?" Janeway asked. "I would suggest that you warn the crew to be wary of him until you find evidence to the contrary. If he's not possessed then he'll most likely come and see you, and something tells me he won't have any hard feelings," Samantha replied. "A valid suggestion, I'll be sure to put it into effect," Janeway said, "You never fail to amaze me, Ensign. Samantha smiled and said, "Thank you," then turned and left, leaving the Captain to make some revisions to her speech.

****

Chakotay groaned and sat up, looking at the people around him, or lack thereof. "Where'd everybody go?" he mumbled to himself as he staggered to his feet. After a few wobbly steps Chakotay reoriented himself and took a good look around. He found that he was outside of the mess hall. Walking toward the door, he was surprised to find that it didn't open. Confused, he tried the manual override to no avail. Peering though the circular windows in the doors he found that while the lights were on, it was not the same busy place it had been before. Though he couldn't see much through the mostly crystallized window, he could tell that instead of a makeshift sickbay, the messhall was in its usual state. With a raised eyebrow and a shrug Chakotay turned and ran right into Tuvok. After struggling to retain his composure Chakotay said, "It's really not polite to sneak up on people like that." Chakotay the turned back around and almost jumped right back into Tuvok. The door to the messhall was open. Noticing that Tuvok was within sensor range of the door, Chakotay asked, "I couldn't get the door open before, how'd you do that?" "You couldn't open it?" replied Tuvok, answering his question with a question. "No I couldn't," said Chakotay as he walked into the messhall. They were both almost knocked over when Neelix came tearing out of the kitchen and tackled them. "How did you get the door open!" Neelix exclaimed. "Ask Tuvok," Chakotay replied, gesturing with his thumb. "As I was about to say before we were interrupted, I'm not sure, it opened like usual for me, but not the Commander and apparently no for you," Tuvok answered. They didn't have the chance to discuss the topic because behind them someone asked, "Where'd everybody go?" They all turned around to find William Telfer looking confused, a look that soon crossed their own features. Chakotay managed to get it together first and said, "That seems to be the question of the day, but I've got another. Where did you come from?" "I was in the mess hall with everybody who was effected by this, whatever it was, and then I blinked and everyone was gone and you people were here," Telfer explained. "I'm weirded out," moaned Neelix. "Join the club," agreed Chakotay, "Well, if Neelix was stuck in here, there's probably other people, we should get them out. Why don't Telfer and Neelix stay here, we'll send anybody we find back here," Chakotay said as he walked over to the door and found that it opened now that Tuvok had already opened it. "Yeah," he muttered, "Let's go Tuvok." "We'll see if we can figure out what's going on," called Neelix, "I'll contact you if we find anything." "Hey, I've got an idea," said Telfer and he tapped his combadge but it didn't respond, "Never mind." "I guess I won't contact you," Neelix mumbled. "We'll see you later," Chakotay called, and he and Tuvok left.

"I suppose if you just walk within sensor range of all the doors we can get them all," Chakotay suggested. "It will be more complicated than that," Tuvok pointed out, "There is also all of the doors that are on the other side of that door." "This is going to take longer than I thought," Chakotay moaned. "The I suggest that we get started," said Tuvok as he stepped into sensor range of a door. To both of their surprise the door didn't open. After Tuvok tried the manual override to no avail Chakotay asked, "Tell me, why won't the door the transporter room open?" "I have no explanation, logical or otherwise," Tuvok replied. "I suppose we'd better keep going and open what we can," Chakotay muttered, "Maybe we'll come across someone who knows what's going on."

"Janeway to all hands, I have some information that it is imperative that you know. If you think you might not be able to remember it all I suggest that you copy it down. Now then, as you probably know, most of our people have been found without a neural pattern. In essence their soul is gone. We have reason to believe that they have been stolen from their bodies by something, most likely supernatural in nature. That being is probably storing them within itself. I believe that we will all be taken by it eventually, except the Doctor, possibly Seven, and maybe Icheb. They will be working to uncover what is going on and rescue us. In the meantime, we think that Tuvok is possessed by whatever is doing this to us, he should be avoided and treated with caution unless either the Doctor or I tell you otherwise. Vorik used to be possessed by this being, but has since been incapacitated. Everybody who has been taken's bodies are still alive but is comas. When you are taken I cannot tell you what will happen of where you'll go. There are people that have been there for hours and they probably don't know exactly what happened to them or if we're trying to help them. When you do go, it will be important that you give the people there this information. Either the Doctor or I will keep giving you the latest information as we get it. We will figure out how to get out of this, stay strong. Janeway out."

****

"Any idea why the turbolifts aren't working?" Chakotay asked Tuvok as they crawled through a jefferies tube. "I'm not sure," Tuvok replied, opening a door and releasing an ensign. "Go to the mess hall," said Chakotay to the ensign. Eyeing the ladder that was inside the room they had just opened, Tuvok said, "With some luck we can get to the bridge from here." "I thought you didn't believe in luck," said Chakotay as he started climbing up the ladder. "It's a figure of speech," Tuvok replied, following him up. A few minutes later they were both surprised to find themselves outside the bridge. **"You know, I didn't actually think we would be able to get the door opened muttered Chakotay as they stepped inside. From somewhere in the room they heard someone call out, "Engage!" The phrases "Fire at will," and "Evasive pattern omega fifty two and a half," soon ensued. Chakotay and Tuvok looked at each other in confusion. Whoever was there then said, "On screen," and stood up out of the Captain's chair. Looking at the viewscreen, which didn't even have any stars on it, he said, "I am Captain Gerron of the Federation Starship Voyager, why have you fired on us?" Chakotay, who was having trouble containing himself, motioned for them to go back into the corridor they had come through. As soon as the door closed, Chakotay errupted with laughter. He was clutching at his sides and doubled over with tears running down his cheeks. "It is far from professional to laugh at a member of your crew," Tuvok said calmly. Trying to recover, Chakotay said, "Last time I checked, they're still Captain Janeway's crew." "Until we find can find the Captain it would seem that they are your crew," Tuvok replied. Taking a deep breath Chakotay said, "Yeah, you're right." Then he snorted and collapsed in an undignified heap on the floor, laughing uncontrollably. "We need to devise a way of letting him know that we are there," said Tuvok rolling his eyes. Chakotay called from the floor, "Okay, I got it! He says something along the lines of 'shields' and one of us says 'aye sir'!" "Without embarrassing him into living out the rest of his days in his quarters," Tuvok said indignantly. "That changes things," Chakotay mumbled, finally getting control of himself. "I suggest that I go in first and announce my presence before he has the chance to say anything degrading. You could come later and pretend that you were held up for some reason or another," Tuvok said thoughtfully. "Lying to him for the sake of his dignity," Chakotay said, "Oh, well, I suppose it's better than having him go into hiding because of embarrassment. Let's go."**

Tuvok walked back onto the bridge to find Gerron deep in a conversation with someone on the view screen, the Borg Queen, Tuvok later decided. "Crewman," he acknowledged in his usual indifferent way. Gerron was obviously startled because he turned around, almost tripped over his feet, and yelped, "Mommy," all at the same time. Tuvok was taken aback by his use of language. Gerron quickly dropped his eyes to the floor and mumbled, "About that mommy thing…" "It won't leave this room," Tuvok assured him. Just then Chakotay came running in. Out of breath he said, "Sheesh Tuvok, you could have waited for me, I can't help it if Lieutenant Carey wanted the entire low down on what's going on." "My apologies, sir," replied Tuvok, raising an eyebrow at him. "You, uh, you didn't hear that, did you?" Gerron asked tentatively. "Hear what?" Chakotay replied a little too quickly and mentally kicked himself in a certain pressure point. "I'm assuming you couldn't get the door open?" Tuvok asked. Gerron nodded sheepishly, his cheeks a slightly redder shade than they were before. "Proceed to the mess hall, everyone we have found is going there," Tuvok commanded. Gerron nodded and left. "Not bad," Chakotay exclaimed, "Give me five, Tuvok." He stuck out his hand, which Tuvok reluctantly slapped. "We should continue searching for people," Tuvok said, rolling his eyes. "Okay," replied Chakotay as they left.

Kathryn was sitting at her desk thinking about how they might be able to get out of this. Reaching for her coffee cup she found it empty. Getting up and walking over to her replicator she muttered, "I really need to switch to decaf." Placing the cup in the replicator, she called, "refill." When nothing happened she said, "Computer…" She was cut off when there was no resounding beep of the computer acknowledging her speaking to it. She tried tapping her com badge to no effect. Moving toward the door with the intention of going to another replicator, she was disturbed that both doors wouldn't open. Upon discovering this she threw her arms up to the ceiling and cried, "No!"

"So, that makes it me two hundred and seventeen, you, uh, three," Crewman Terek recounted concerning all of the games they had played on the holodeck. "Does that include parises squares, air hockey, hoverball, billiards, and that lightsaber match?" Harry asked tentatively. "We wouldn't be in the two hundreds if it didn't," Terek pointed out, "and who's program is that Jedi battle anyway?" "It's a good thing you're not Tom or else I'd owe you replicator rations until we get back home," Harry sighed and then snickered, "I think it might be Seven's program." "At least the holodeck is working better than the doors and communications or we'd probably have resorted to thumb wrestling by now," Terek replied. "So, what do you want to do now?" asked Harry. "Ooh! I've got it! Thumb wrestling!" Terek exclaimed. "I thought we already established that we aren't to desperate yet," Harry pointed out. "I changed my mind," said Terek as she grabbed Harry's hand, "Come on! 1, 2, 3, 4, I declare a thumb war! 5, 6, 7, 8, beat you at the starting gate!" "That can wait," said Harry, dislodging his hand from hers, "right now I've got an idea." "At least you're good at something," Terek muttered. Harry resisted the urge to give her his best version of the Janeway death glare, but just barely. Instead he said, "We could use a battering ram to punch a hole through the door." "Engineering won't be very happy with that," Terek pointed out. "As of right now it seems al if the only options are to stay here and go crazy or get engineering mad at us," Harry said, "Doesn't sound like a very hard choice to me." "Yeah, let's stay," Terek agreed, "What do you want to do?" "No, I mean it's not a very hard decision that we have to try to get out of here," Harry explained, "besides, we can fix the door ourselves if we have to." "Okay, so what program would have a battering ram in it that we can lift but will still have some effect on the door?" Terek asked. "Let's see, Tropical paradise," Harry suggested. "I'm surprised you'd want to go into that one again," Terek smirked. "Get over it, how about World War Two?" Harry asked. "I'm not going in that one again, besides, I think we deleted it," Terek pointed out. "I thought you were in the Dominion Wars," Harry said. "We all wound up in World War Two at one point or another, why not Insurrection Alpha?" Terek suggested. "What would we use as a battering ram there?" Harry asked. "Seska's head," Terek laughed. "I'm surprised with you," Harry gasped, "You don't seem like the type to hold a grudge." "She betrayed us all at least twice," Terek pouted, "Your going to have to forgive me if I have a vendetta against her guts. Why not Beowulf?" "No," Harry said strongly, "Ooh, I've got it! Why not the Klingon battle simulation? That has trees right?" Harry exclaimed. "I don't know about the trees, but it seems plausible. Won't Lieutenant Torres get mad at us for using her program?" Terek said doubtfully. "She'll get over it eventually," Harry replied. "Last time I checked, trees are usually stuck to the ground and I don't think that either of us are strong enough to cut it down with a bat'leth, how are we going to use it?" Terek pointed out." "I've got an idea," Harry said as he walked over to the access panel by the door and activated the program, "Just stay here." Harry picked up a bat'leth and proceeded to poke his finger with it. "What are you doing?" asked Terek. "Making sure that the Klingons out there won't be able to decapitate me," Harry replied as he tried to cut off his own hand. "If the safeties weren't on that hoverball probably would have killed you," Terek said. "Good point," replied Harry and he started walking into the forest, "get rid of the Klingons when I tell you to." Harry trod cautiously into the woods. He was soon confronted by a Klingon and just barely managed to deflect that was intended to relieve him of his legs. Held in a deadlock, Harry backed up until he was against a tree. The Klingon pulled back his bat'leth and took another swing at Harry. Instead of countering the move, Harry dropped flat on the ground. The blow intended for Harry cut the tree in half. "Get rid of the Klingons! Now!" Harry yelled. A second later the Klingon disappeared. Harry breathed a sigh of relief, picked up the fallen tree, and started dragging it back to the door. Upon reaching the door, Harry said, "We're going to have to pull off some branches if we're going to be able to pick this up. Make sure you have enough to hold onto though." "We're going to have to turn off the safeties if this is going to have any effect on the door," Terek pointed out. "That's should be fine just as long as you got all of the Klingons," Harry replied. They soon finished pulling off leaves and after turning off the safeties, began putting their battering ram to use.

In the corridor outside Chakotay was saying, "I've tried dropping hints both subtle and not so subtle, but she just doesn't seem to get it." "I believe I know her enough to tell you that it's not that she doesn't reciprocate, but she feels it would be inappropriate to pursue a relationship with a member of her crew, so she doesn't let on," Tuvok replied. "What your trying to say is it's a lost cause," Chakotay finished for him. "At least until we get home and she doesn't outrank you anymore," Tuvok concluded. "Do you hear something?" Chakotay asked, "Like a banging sound?" After a thoughtful moment Tuvok replied, "Yes, it seems to be coming from somewhere down the corridor, we should investigate."

"This doesn't seem to be working," Terek moaned. "Maybe we should back up and run at the door," Harry suggested. They backed up as far as they could while still keeping a straight course toward the door, which was about twenty-five meters. "Ready?" asked Harry. "Wait," commanded Terek, "we need a battle cry or something." "Good idea," Harry said, "Let's see…"

"That's weird," said Chakotay as he reached the outside of the holodeck, "I could've sworn that banging sound was coming from here. You should try to open the doors anyway." Tuvok nodded and set to work on the controls.

"Ready?" asked Terek. Harry took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay," said Terek, "1, 2, 3…" They started running at a breakneck pace toward the door, yelling at the top of their lungs, "SHUT UP AND EAT THE FRUITCAKE!!!" Just as they were about to run into the door, it opened and they ran through. The tree trunk disappeared as they went through the door. Narrowly sidestepping Chakotay, Harry and Terek slammed headlong into the wall on the other side of the corridor. They both almost cried, "Ow," but it hurt too much. Chakotay cringed and asked, "You guys okay?" Harry, who had tree trunks and bat'leths dancing around his head tried to shake them away with out much success and groaned, "Ask a stupid question get a stupid answer." "I'll take that as a no," said Chakotay as he looked into both of their eyes, "Neither of you have a concussion, if there's anything else, we can help you to sickbay, or at least try." Harry and Terek struggled to their feet. "I think we're okay," said Terek. "It's a good thing we've got such hard heads," laughed Harry. "Tuvok and I are going to keep searching for people," said Chakotay. "Mind if I come with?" asked Harry. "Yeah, go ahead," replied Chakotay, "Terek, everybody's in the mess hall if you want to join them." As Terek walked off Harry said, "Shall we go then?"


	3. Exit airlock two

For disclaimer, see instructions on part two

For disclaimer, see instructions on part two.

Captor of your Soul, part III: exit airlock two

****

Tom got done pacing sickbay for what seemed like the millionth time and started the million and first. He was trying to figure out what it was that he had done to deserve all this. He lost his best friend and his wife and in the blink of an eye everyone in sickbay had disappeared, including their bodies. And now he was trapped in sickbay. It was as if reality had a personal vendetta against him and wanted nothing more than to see him suffer. Too bad it isn't possible for reality to hold a grudge. He looked at the biobed where B'Elanna used to lay and could almost see her, but he knew it was just his mind playing tricks on him. Pausing to look at his reflection in a console, Tom gasped at his own appearance. Worry lines crossed his face, his eyes were red and blotchy, although probably not as much al they were before, and his tar looked like it had seen a tornado. There was little he could do about the worry lines or his eyes, but Tom pawed at his hair until it looked presentable again. Turning around to continue his pacing, Tom stepped on something. Upon further investigation he found that it was the doctor's mobile emitter. "Not bad," he said aloud, "too bad I don't have the slightest clue how to work it." Just then Tom thought he heard the door open, but he shrugged it off as a figment of his imagination. So when he thought he sensed someone behind him, he thought it was wishful thinking of a man who had been alone for too long and questioned his own sanity. Then someone tapped Tom on the shoulder, causing him to jump and turn around at the same time. What Tom found shocked him more than the tap on the shoulder had. There in front of stood Harry, grinning like a fool. "Ahhh!" Tom screamed and scrambled backwards. "What Harry asked, "You look like you've seen a ghost." "I think I have," Tom replied, "You were found in your quarters with no brain pattern and severe neurological trauma, you might as well of been dead." "Really, these guys didn't bother to tell me that," said Harry, gesturing behind him to Tuvok and Chakotay. "You're going to have to forgive us for not making sickbay on the top of our places to visit list," said Chakotay, crossing his arms. "Not many of us know what's going on, they're hoping to come across someone who does eventually. I was just on my way to the mess hall, I'll fill you in on what's going on, or as much as we know, on the way," offered Harry hopefully. Cautiously, Tom walked forward and in a sudden movement pinched Harry on the neck. "Ow," cried Harry, clutching at the offending spot on his neck, "What was that for?" "You're Harry," replied Tom, grabbing Harry's and dragging him outside, "Let's go." "Now it's gonna look like I've got a hickey," Harry moaned. "It's about time," Tom replied, "When was the last time you saw any action? When you said goodbye to Libby?" "When did I tell you about her?" Harry asked. "Let's see, about the second day after I saved you from Quark back on Deep Space Nine, then again when I offered you that double date with Megan and Jenny Delainy, right after you got out of that alien recreation of Earth, need I go on?" Tom replied. "You've made your point," Harry sighed. "While we're on the subject, have you seen B'Elanna?" Tom asked. "Afraid not," said Harry, "But Tuvok and Chakotay are still trying to open some doors." "I hope she's alright," Tom sighed. "She knows how to take care of herself," Harry replied. After an awkward silence, Harry said, "Ah, yes, the mess hall. I never thought I'd be so happy to see this place." "Way to change the subject," Tom muttered as they walked inside, "Hey, I found the Doctor's mobile emitter, you want to try to make it work?" "I'll try," said Harry. After fiddling with it for a minute he said, "I can't get it to work, B'Elanna might be able to figure out what's wrong, but I don't know enough about it." "Then we'll just have to ask her when we find her," Tom said. Even though he sounded confident, his face said otherwise. Harry looked at Tom's hand and found that he was moving his wedding ring around on his finger like he was extremely worried about her. 

"Did we think to try the second door to the Captain's ready room?" Chakotay asked Tuvok as soon as Tom and Harry had left. "I don't believe we did," Tuvok replied. Slapping himself on the cheek Chakotay exclaimed, "How could we be so stupid! Let's go!" They arrived a few minutes later and were appalled to find that the door opened and Captain Janeway was sulking inside. "This is going to score me big points with her," Chakotay thought as he stepped inside. "Captain?" he asked cautiously. "Coffee!" she cried, struggling to put together a coherent sentence, "no replicators, no com system, couldn't leave." Janeway collapsed sobbing into Chakotay's arms. "Um," stammered Chakotay, "are you sure you need it? I mean, people been here for hours and while practically out of their minds with boredom, not hungry." Janeway pulled herself together and said, "I suppose you're right, I guess I'm just so used to drinking it that I didn't take the time to notice that I didn't need it." "With all due respect, you should really switch to decaf," Chakotay said cautiously. "You know, I told myself the same thing when this all started, maybe I'll try that," Janeway replied, "Thank you Commander. Now then, Tuvok, let's go." The Captain grabbed Tuvok by the arm and dragged him in sensor range of the door. Chakotay was about to tell her that door didn't open when it did. "We couldn't open that door before," said Chakotay, obviously confused as they walked onto the bridge, "And how did you know that Tuvok was the only person who could open the doors?" "I didn't, I just felt hyper and dragged him over here," replied Janeway, "As for the door, that's kind of weird." "No kid-ding," said Chakotay, transfixed by the viewscreen. Following his gaze, Tuvok and Janeway found the screen in heavy static with a faint image behind it. Chakotay murmured, "Through the static I can almost see…" "The warp core!" Janeway finished excitedly, "Chakotay, take ops, I'll get the engineering section, let's try to clear this up for them."

"That should do it," said Chakotay a few minutes later. Janeway stepped out to the center of the bridge and found at least thirty people jumping around in an excited frenzy. Eventually someone started trying to work their way to the display screen. The rest of the people weren't making it very easy for them. Eventually they fought their way through the crowd and up to the display screen. "B'Elanna," breathe the Captain, "It's nice to see you." "Likewise," replied B'Elanna, "You'll have to excuse everybody, they're really excited that this actually worked." "Why was this such a hard thing?" asked Janeway. "I don't know how to put this mildly so I'll just say that there's no main computer." "That changes things," Janeway muttered, "How'd you do it." "We had many ideas," B'Elanna explained, "One of the stranger ones was to do Morse code with the lights. We almost projected holograms of ourselves on the holodeck or sickbay, but you need the computer to do that. So we figured we'd use the external communications and have the warp core make it go through the deflector dish. From there we could use the external sensors to pick it up. That still wouldn't do it, though, because while you can put a ship on screen with sensors, it wouldn't be able to do that with vibrations through the deflector. So we used the phasers and their ability to change frequencies and put our image on the main screen. And what do you know, it worked." "It's a good thing you're down there," said Janeway. "It seems like you know a bit more about what's going on than we do," Chakotay spoke up, "Would you mind clueing us in before my head explodes?" "Where's the sport in that?" B'Elanna asked sarcastically. "I think Chakotay can suffer a little longer," said Janeway, "I'd like to know who you've got know there. "Okay," replied B'Elanna and she called to the people around her, "Come here a minute people, the Captain wants to know who's here. Hold still until I say your name, then go over there or something 'cause I can't see you all at once, I'm kinda short over here. You got something to write this down with, Captain?" Janeway waved a padd in the air and nodded. "Let's see here," said B'Elanna, "We got Naomi Wildman…" "Wait," Janeway interrupted, "Naomi Wildman?" Yeah," replied B'Elanna, "Naomi, come here a minute, the Captain wants to see you." Naomi ran over and B'Elanna picked her up so she could be seen. "Hi Captain," said Naomi, waving. Janeway smiled and waved back. Once B'Elanna set Naomi down, Janeway said, "Her mother will be happy to see her." "She'll be happy to see her mother," replied B'Elanna, "I tried to help, but somehow it just wasn't the same for her." "You played mommy for her?" asked Janeway in astonishment. "I'm hurt," said B'Elanna sarcastically, "actually, I was the one who found her, with a little help from Vorik and somehow I couldn't find anyone who was better qualified for the job." "Why did you find her with help from Vorik?" Janeway asked. "Vorik was the only one who could open doors," B'Elanna explained. "Was?" said the Captain. "For some reason he lost that ability," B'Elanna replied. Janeway started thinking out loud "That's strange because Tuvok can open doors and…""I'm sure we'll be able to figure this out later, but right now you wanted to know who's down here?" B'Elanna interrupted. "Just a second," The Captain stepped out of the range of hearing of the display screen. When she came back she said, "I sent Tuvok to get Tom and Samantha Wildman." B'Elanna could see Tuvok walking across back of the bridge so she called, "Tuvok wait! Try the doors you couldn't open before again, they might open." "You've got a lot of explaining to do, Lieutenant," Janeway said as Tuvok left. "Am I in trouble?" asked B'Elanna. "I don't know," said Janeway with a smile, "confusing for Captain is regular court marshal material." "I'll try to rectify that unfortunate situation, but after I tell you who's down here, okay?"

"Everybody's been taken," the Doctor said sullenly as he walked into cargobay two with Icheb in tow. "What do you intend to do?" asked Seven as she stepped down from her alcove. "The question is what are _we _going to do, and I haven't gotten that far yet," replied the Doctor. "We did promise the crew we would help them," Icheb intervened. "If you want to get technical, the Captain promised the crew for us," the Doctor pointed out, "but whether or not we're gong to help them is not up for debate, we need to figure out how." "We can't save them from something we can't find," said Seven. "Crewman Harren said that it is probably a ghost," Icheb reminded them. After a look from the Doctor he added, "I'm using that term loosely." "How do we find some thing of supernatural origin," asked Seven. "I'm hoping that was a rhetorical question," the Doctor pleaded. "It was not," Seven replied. "Maybe we could reconfigure our optical sensors to detect spacial distortions, or energy patterns," Icheb suggested. "We could," replied the Doctor, "but the could be a least a dozen different things we might have to look for and only one of them might work. Even with all three of us searching there is still much less of a chance that one of us finds it than we miss it altogether." "We already know where it is," Seven pointed out, "controlling Tuvok." "But with the ability to leave him and disappear at any time," the Doctor replied. "It is possible that anything we try to do will result it it's disappearance and therefor loosing all chance of rescuing them," Icheb pointed out. After a moment of thoughtful silence the Doctor said, "If we don't do anything it will leave eventually anyway, what we need is a way to make it come to us." "A séance," Seven stated flatly. "How do you know about those?" the Doctor asked. "Lieutenant Tuvok mentioned one when he was searching for the person behind the incapacitated former Maquis," Seven replied, "my curiosity was aroused so I did some research on the subject. The calling of the dead, a strange ritual indeed." "Unorthodox, maybe, but it seems like the best we're going to come up with," said the Doctor, "then again, it could all be a load of hooey." "If it's really a ghost we're dealing with here, do you think it could be a deceased member of the crew out for revenge?" Icheb asked. "It's no entirely unthinkable," replied Seven. "There was once a theory that ghosts are people who died with unfinished business," said the Doctor, "Every member of this crew has business that will remain unfinished until we get home. Maybe a spirit was lonely." Seven pouted "I'm going to drop my usually calm demeanor long enough to say, are you trying to creep us out?" "Maybe, is it working?" the Doctor replied. "Are we going to do this or not?" asked Icheb, bringing them back to the task at hand. "Um, yeah," replied the Doctor, "holodeck."

****

"So what you're saying is that the reason we can't open some doors is because the room behind them doesn't exist because no one's been brought from that room?" Janeway asked, trying to keep all the information straight. "Yeah," B'Elanna replied, "and you're trying to tell me that we're stuck in some alien ghost?" "Yeah," said the Captain. "Well, that's one way to get inside someone's head," B'Elanna muttered. "And we're trying to tell each other that Vorik and Tuvok can open the doors because that alien is possessing them?" Janeway asked. "I suppose that since the alien has or had control over their bodies, they have some control over what's happening to us," B'Elanna said. Janeway turned at the sound of the door opening to admit Samantha Wildman. The Captain gestured for her to stand in front of the display screen. "Lieutenant Paris was in the middle of a poker game, he'll be here in a minute," Samantha told B'Elanna. "Always the gentleman," B'Elanna said, smiling, "I'll get Naomi." Turning away from the display screen B'Elanna called, "Naomi, could you come here for a minute?" Naomi started walking, no too quickly in the general direction of B'Elanna. She also started singing, "_We have here some mutilated monkey meat, mashed and grounded spider heads, shish-ka-bobed tiger tails, choices in the school cafeteria, and me without my spoon, but I've got a straw!"_ She was abruptly cut off when B'Elanna clamped a hand over her mouth. After a forced smile at Samantha, B'Elanna called, "Chell, what have you been teaching her!" Removing her hand from Naomi's mouth, B'Elanna straightened up and said, "Sorry, as soon as we get out of this I'll have the Doctor purge her memory." "That won't be necessary, Lieutenant, that was actually my favorite song when I was growing up," Samantha replied. "I suppose you'll want to talk to her," B'Elanna stammered, "Just a second. B'Elanna got down on all fours and said to Naomi, "Okay, you can stand on my back, put one foot on my shoulder blades and the other on my hips." Naomi climbed up and B'Elanna cried, "Move you right foot farther down before you break my back!" Naomi shifted position and straightened up saying, "Hi mom." "Hi Naomi, are you alright?" Samantha replied. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Naomi asked. "Well, just looking up and I'm not there has to be a little scary," Samantha said. "I was, but then B'Elanna came and made me feel better, she even got me Flotter," Said Naomi, raising up the doll so her mom could see it. "I'm glad you had someone so sweet to take care of you," replied Samantha, "Where is she anyway?" "I'm standing on her back," explained Naomi. "Really?" asked Samantha, "Well, I suppose I'd better keep it short." "Tell your mom to take her time," said B'Elanna. "B'Elanna said to take your time," Naomi said. "I can't make her stay there for too long," replied Samantha, "what have you been doing?" "I got a tour of engineering and B'Elanna explained what happens during a warp core breech," Naomi said excitedly. "Exciting stuff?" Samantha asked. "Yeah, I never knew there is so much energy right there in that little, er, not so little tube," Naomi replied. "Did you even know that the warp core was there?" Samantha pointed out." "Maybe not, but how would I if I'm usually not allowed in here?" Naomi explained. "You do have a point?" said Samantha, shrugging. "What have you been doing?" Naomi asked. "Nothing as interesting as a tour of engineering, mostly just talking to people," Samantha replied, "Oh look, Lieutenant Paris is here, I'd better let him and Lieutenant Torres talk." "Okay, love you Mom!" said Naomi. "I love you too," Samantha replied. Naomi started getting down, but tripped and fell. They were below visual range of the view screen and could only be hear faintly because they weren't talking directly into the microphone. Samantha could hear a faint crack, an oof, and an ouch. "What happened?" Samantha asked. Naomi started jumping so she could be seen and calling, "I'm okay mommy! B'Elanna saved me!" "What was that crack?" inquired Samantha. B'Elanna got up, halfway double over like she had the wind knocked out of her, and groaned, "Probably my elbow." "Funny bone?" asked Samantha wincing. "Yeah," replied B'Elanna. "So, what exactly happened?" Tom asked, coming forward. "As Naomi was getting down her foot got caught on the back of my uniform. She started falling backwards so I dove underneath to break her fall," B'Elanna explained. "I don't know what to say," breathed Samantha. "Don't mention it. The floor in here is really hard, she wouldn't have stood a chance," B'Elanna replied. "Thank you," Samantha exclaimed, "Now I'd better leave you two to talk." "Bye mom!" said Naomi, jumping up once again. "Bye sweetie," Samantha called, "Thank you Lieutenant." "All in a days work," she replied, "and you can call me B'Elanna. It's no like we're on duty or anything." Samantha smiled and left, leaving Tom alone in front of the viewscreen. "So, I heard you were playing poker, who won?" B'Elanna asked tentatively. "If you must know, it was Crewman Terek," Tom replied sheepishly. "How much did you loose?" B'Elanna inquired, getting right to the point. "Eighty two," Tom said, sullenly, then he smiled and said, "In poker chips." "Poker chips," B'Elanna exclaimed, "that's not your style." "I suggested it after a tip from Harry," Tom exclaimed, "Something about getting creamed on the holodeck by Terek." "Where did you get poker chips and a deck of cards from without the replicator anyway?" B'Elanna asked. "It seems that Neelix keeps them in a cupboard in the kitchen," Tom explained. "Smart guy," B'Elanna muttered. "You really scared me," said Tom. "With what?" asked B'Elanna, "Suddenly having no soul or saving Naomi from the floor?" "Actually, I was still trying to figure out how Naomi got so tall when that happened, but when Joe Carey found you in engineering I thought I would never see you alive again," Tom replied. "Sorry," B'Elanna said. "It's okay, at least you're still around. I might never be able to see you in person though. Tuvok said that almost everyone is accounted for, but even if we find the last three people, we won't be able to get to where you are," Tom replied. "Then we'll just have to wait until the Doctor gets us out," B'Elanna reassured him. "I guess so," said Tom, sounding less than confident, "So, you were mommy to Naomi?" "Yeah," replied B'Elanna, "Are you going to rub it in?" "No, I'm just wishing that I could have been there to help you," Tom said. "You're sweet," B'Elanna smiled. "I try," replied Tom. "Anything interesting happen up there?" B'Elanna asked. "Well, I found the Doctor's mobile emitter, but no one seems to be able to get it to work, any ideas why," Tom explained. "Remember when we first got it, I said that we wouldn't be able to just replicate another, we'd have to build it from scratch? That's probably the problem. I'd have to examine it to be sure though," B'Elanna replied. "I love you," said Tom. "You're not giving up are you?" B'Elanna asked. "No, but I wanted to tell you before I no longer have the chance," Tom replied. "That sounds like giving up to me," said B'Elanna, crossing her arms. "Well, what if someone else comes and wants to come and talk to someone who's down there," Tom explained. "In that case, I love you too," B'Elanna replied, blowing him a kiss.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing, Doctor?" Icheb asked. "If I say no what will you do?" replied the Doctor. "I was just trying to make sure that you know enough about this to do more help than harm for the crew," said Icheb. "The séance is the best option we have," the Doctor explained, "And we're going to try it." Seven walked onto the holodeck and after a brief look at her surroundings, asked, "What is the use of all these decorations?" "Supposedly it's necessary to attract the spirits," the Doctor replied. "We'd best get underway," Seven suggested. The Doctor gave them each a padd and a tricorder and they all sat down around a table and clasped hands. The Doctor said, "Spirits of the past, move among…" He was cut off when a disembodied voice said, "You can cut that out, I'm here." "Um, can you make yourself visible?" the Doctor asked, "It would be much easier to talk t you that way." "Oh, sure, why not," it replied and suddenly there was a small, white, slightly see through apparition floating in the air above them, "This good?" "Yes, thank you," the Doctor replied, "do you have a name?" "Casper," it said. Icheb leaned over and whispered to Seven, "I hope he's a friendly ghost." "Are you responsible for the disappearance of our crew's souls?" asked the Doctor. "No, but it that what this is about?" replied Casper, "because it could be one of my people that is responsible." "What is it that your race does?" Seven asked. "We take the souls of people where they stay for the rest of eternity with whatever they want. Often times many people's souls are in the same place, families for instance. I believe it's what you might call heaven," Casper explained, "Every once in a while one of our people go crazy and take the souls of people before they are dead. Instead of putting them in a paradise they are tortured. Those souls remain there until they go crazy and cease to exist." "Is there any way we can get them back?" asked Icheb. "No, I'm afraid not," replied Casper. "If there is any information on your species we could have we might be able to devise a way to save our crew," Seven suggested. "Very well," said Casper. He passed through their tricorders and padds. "You now have all the information on our kind, good luck," said Casper. "If we do come up with something we have no way of finding the being doing this to us," said the Doctor, "If it's not too much to ask, could you find him and bring him back here?" "I will bring him here," Casper replied and he left flying right through the wall. After looking at his padd and tricorder the Doctor said, "I think I might have just the thing. Computer, activate program EMH gamma pi." A second later they were standing in front of an old wearhouse. "Where are we?" asked Seven. I'll explain later, follow me," replied the Doctor. They were soon inside climbing up a metal staircase. Upon reaching the top, the Doctor opened a door and walked inside, Seven and Icheb cautiously following behind him. Grabbing two gray suits off of a shelf and tossing them to Seven and Icheb, the Doctor said, "Put these on." Holding the suit out in front of her so she could se the logo, Seven asked, "Ghostbusters?" It was a movie back in the late 20th century," the Doctor explained, "Just put the suit on, this could get messy." "How will this help us?" asked Icheb. "With this," replied the Doctor, pulling out three bulky backpacks and giving one to each of them, "There is goo in this that I'm hoping will incapacitate the ghost without hurting it." "Then what?" asked Icheb, "The crew is still stuck inside." "The we're going to use this," explain the Doctor, pulling out something that seemed to be pulsing with energy, "hopefully we can use it to shock the ghost and confuse it long enough to get it to release the crew." "Hopefully isn't good enough," Seven pointed out, "the could come back and be vegetables for the rest of their lives." "Do you have a better idea?" asked the Doctor, "You heard Casper, they're being tortured in there." Then Casper came back and said, "He'll be here in a minute. His name is Yeti and don't bother trying to talk to him, there is some thing about him that makes it so that your universal translator won't work and you won't speak the same language." "Thank you Casper, you've been a great help," replied the Doctor, "Let me explain what we're going to do." Just as the Doctor got done Casper said, "Yeti make yourself seen." "Is it okay with you if we try this?" the Doctor asked. "You can go ahead," said Casper, "In fact, if this works, perhaps you would be willing to share this idea in more detail so we can rescue other people who have been taken before they are dead." Yeti then became visible, but he wasn't a pearly white like Casper, instead he was an unattractive green color. "You ready?" the Doctor asked. "Are you sure this won't hurt him?" questioned Icheb as they shouldered their packs. "Pretty sure," the Doctor replied, "Let's do this." All three of them started spraying their pink goo on Yeti. Yeti screamed in fear and then dropped to the ground as the goo enveloped him. The Doctor walked up to him with the device to shock him muttering, "Moment of truth. Mr. Yeti, this shouldn't hurt, or if it does only for a second." The Doctor bent over and touched the device to a part of Yeti that wasn't covered in goo.

****

The chime to the Captain's ready room rang. "Come in," called Janeway. Tom came rushing inside in hysterics. "The transmission went to static," he exclaimed. "Calm down, there's a lot that could go wrong with it," replied the Captain standing up and stepping to the front of her desk, "Let's see, she said that everything involved was external communications, the deflector, the warp core, external sensors, phasers. Oh my God…"

"That's strange," said B'Elanna concerning the fact that the transmission had gone to static. "B'Elanna," said Naomi, pulling at her sleeve, "is the warp core supposed to do that?" Following the little girl's gaze, B'Elanna was horrified to find that the antimatter inside the core was rushing around at an incredibly fast rate and plasma was spuming all around the base. Running forward to the core diagnostic console, B'Elanna started working furiously on it. "What's happening?" asked Naomi. "Remember when I told you about a warp core breech?" B'Elanna replied.

"… the warp core!" Janeway finished, "it's going to breech." "Not good," said Tom stating the obvious. "Nope," agreed the Captain, "Everybody's in the mess hall right?" "Yeah," Tom replied. "Go down there and tell them that they need to come up to deck one now, Captain's orders." "Yes Captain," replied Tom and he sprinted out. Janeway ran onto the bridge and started working on getting emergency forefields.

"Well we're going to have one," B'Elanna told Naomi. She smacked the console she was working on and said, "I can't reinforce the core, there's something wrong with the forcefields." "Is that bad?" Naomi asked. "Oh yeah," B'Elanna replied. "Why don't you just eject the core?" Naomi said. "There's nowhere to eject it to, this reality ends right on the other side of the ship," B'Elanna explained. "But my Mommy doesn't know were going to have a warp core breech," Naomi cried. "She might be far enough away to be alright, but we're not so we have to get out of here," B'Elanna exclaimed, "Everybody out! Vorik, lead us to the place that is farthest away from the warp core that you could get to. This is no time to dawdle people, we got to get out of here, now!"

Tom arrived at the mess hall out of breath. Struggling to get his wind back, he called, "People, the core is gong to breech, we've got to get as far away from it as we possibly can. Captain's orders, Let's go!" They arrived on deck one in a record two minutes. They crammed in the bridge, the captains ready room, and the corridor outside. "I can't get the forcefields online," the Captain called, "we might not survive so I'll tell you all now, you're the best crew a Captain could ever ask. We've seen through so much together that it seems a shame that this is the way that we go down. But we can't say we're not going out with style."

Everyone was sprinting through the corridor to get to the jefferies tube. "Is the warp core going to explode?" Naomi asked. "Yes, replied B'Elanna, "but save your breath for running so we can try to get away from it." "But won't it destroy the ship?" Naomi pointed out. "It will, but I'll explain when we get there, just run," B'Elanna said. When they could go no farther, B'Elanna tried to seal the hatch to no avail. "Amazing where a little adrenaline will get you," someone muttered as they all settled into two jefferies tubes and a vertical junction that all connected. "Everybody listen up," B'Elanna called, "I couldn't get the hatch to seal all the way, so we will not be protected from the breech. I can't tell you if we will survive this, but there are a few things I would like to you. You people never cease to amaze me. The way you have pulled together through this entire ordeal was wonderful. How you put aside your differences in rank and area of expertise so we could figure out how to contact the bridge only goes to show how great of a crew you are. It has been an honor and a privilege to work with you. As Tuvok would say, live long and prosper, although I can't guarantee that you'll be able to put that to much use." "Lieutenant," Tal Celes called from nearby. "Yes," B'Elanna replied. "In case I don't get the chance, I'd like to thank you for re-teaching me how to read the sensors. I don't know what it was about the way you taught me, but I think it really helped," said Celes. "No problem," B'Elanna replied, "When you only make it through two year at the academy you kind of have to teach yourself. I'm just glad I found a method that works for you." "B'Elanna," Naomi said from right next to her, "You said that we might survive, but the ship is going to be destroyed, how does that work?" "I was trying to avoid telling you this but here goes anyway. We're not actually here, only our souls are. The Captain say that a ghost captured us and is holding us within itself, so when the ship is destroyed we might be able to leave the ghost of we might be destroyed with it, we'll just have to wait and see." "So you mean we're real live dead things?" Naomi asked, trying to get it straight. "In a sense," B'Elanna replied, "we're alive, but disembodied."

So everyone on the ship waited, listening to the sound of the warp core get continually louder and higher until it was almost unbearable. The apprehension in the air was so thick that you could cut it with a knife, but no one said a word. B'Elanna reached over and got Naomi to sit on her lap, she then covered the little girl's ears and buried Naomi's head into her chest so she wouldn't be able to see the explosion.

The Doctor finished giving Yeti the shock and stepped back. Yeti's face screwed up and he turned purple. The room turned icy cold and Icheb couldn't help but whisper, "I see dead people." "They're not dead Icheb," the Doctor reminded him. All of a sudden Yeti let out a blood-curdling scream and turned the same pearly white color as Casper. "What just happened?" the Doctor asked.

****

Then, just as suddenly as the core had started to overload, it exploded and the ship disappeared from around them. They were all floating, not in space, but in what looked like the inside of a warehouse. Someone said, or rather, thought, "Look! There's the Doctor and Seven and Icheb. This must be the holodeck!" "What are they wearing?" someone asked. "Who care, they rescued us," someone else replied. Still another person thought, "Does anyone besides me feel like they're being pulled somewhere?" "Yeah," everyone agreed. Someone suggested, "Maybe we should follow it, perhaps we're being pulled to our bodies." "You're probably right," thought someone else who could only be Captain Janeway, "Go find your bodies everyone."

"Your friends have been set free," Casper replied. The Doctor started scanning all around them and observed, "They're starting to return to their bodies, I'd better go. Seven, do you know enough about what we used to explain it to Casper?" "Yes, I believe I do," Seven replied. "I'll be going then," said the Doctor. Tapping his combadge, he called, "Doctor to all hands, please remain where you are until I've had a chance to make sure that none of you have any ill effects from your little encounter."

"No argument here," muttered Tom from sickbay, "I didn't know that disembodiment came with such a bad headache." "It's nice to see you in person," said B'Elanna from on top of the biobed. Tom smiled and helped her sit up. "Ugh," she moaned, "you were right about those headaches." Looking up B'Elanna saw Naomi struggling to get up with her mom nowhere in sight. B'Elanna groaned and got to her feet. "Where are you going?" Tom asked. "To help Naomi," B'Elanna replied, "Why don't you go see how Harry's doing." "Hi," said B'Elanna upon reaching Naomi, "how are you?" "I'm okay I guess," Naomi replied, "Where's my mom?" "I'm not sure, she could be in her quarters or the mess hall or even a turbolift, but I'm sure she'll come as soon as the Doctor's taken a look at her," B'Elanna reassured her. Samantha did arrive a few minutes later and walked up to Naomi saying, "Hi sweetie. Sorry I wasn't here, I was in our quarters, but I was one of the first people the Doctor looked at. Are you okay?" "I'm fine," said Naomi, smiling, "I had a headache, but it went away." "I think we all did," Samantha replied. Taking B'Elanna aside Samantha said, "I can't thank you enough for taking care of her during all of this." "I was just happy to help," B'Elanna replied. "I'll let you go talk to your husband," Samantha said, "I'm sure he really wants to see you." "Thank you," B'Elanna said. Walking over to Tom and Harry, B'Elanna asked, "How ya doing, Starfleet?" "He'll be okay," Tom answered for him, "but the alien rattled him around a bit. The Doctor repaired most of the damage, but he'll have one heck of a headache for a while." "Hang in there, Harry," said B'Elanna, touching his shoulder, "the Doctor will be here soon."

The Doctor had just reached the Captain's Ready Room. "That was quick," said Janeway, "are you sure you didn't forget the mess hall?" "I got it," replied the Doctor as he started scanning the Captain with his tricorder. "Sickbay?" she asked. The Doctor clamped a hand to his forehead and muttered, "Oops." "Well, I'm glad to hear that you've got it all together," sighed the Captain. "You're the last person, I'll just go there next," replied the Doctor. "I want a full report on my desk by tomorrow," said Janeway. "Of course," the Doctor said, "What exactly happened that let you out?" "Oh, nothing big," replied Janeway, "just a warp core breech." "Sorry," the Doctor muttered. "At least you got us out," Janeway assured him, "now go to sickbay before they all just get up and leave."

The Doctor got to sickbay a minute later saying, "Sorry I took so long." There was a muttered reply from everyone that sounded something like, "Oh, no problem, take your time, we don't mind waiting here all day." The Doctor made his way through sickbay and released them all although Harry got a hypospray and a warning to take it easy for the next couple days. On the way out. B'Elanna was stopped by Naomi, who said, "I just wanted to thank you for helping me, and I was wondering if I could come visit you in engineering sometime." "You're very welcome and sure you can come visit me sometime," B'Elanna replied, "Although you might want to time it when we're not being attacked by the Borg or something else like that. Maybe next time it won't end with us running for our lives because of a warp core breech."

A few minutes later Samantha and Naomi reached their quarters. Naomi made a few finishing touches to her picture and then went into her room to get something. She came back a second later and handed her mom the picture. Samantha pretended to look surprised as she studied the picture. "Naomi, it's beautiful," she gasped, "is the rose supposed to he the rose up there?" "Yep," replied Naomi proudly, "What's the columbine for?" Samantha asked. "It's supposed to go with this," said Naomi, pulling a pressed and dried columbine from behind her back. Pulling Naomi into a hug Samantha said, "I'll put it right next to the rose." Breaking away from the hug Naomi settled back into her drawing seat on the floor. "What are you drawing now?" Samantha asked. "A card for B'Elanna," Naomi replied, and she set to work.

B'Elanna and Tom reached their quarters after what seemed like an eternity of wandering through the ship. Tom sighed and sat down on the couch, gesturing for B'Elanna to sit next to him. As soon as she sat down all the cooped up feelings from the day came spilling out as tears. Tears for a little girl who may never be able to know half of who she is but never gives up. Tears for her won short childhood. For the half of her that she pushed away and the other half that left. Tears for their own helpless situation, trying to get home. Tears that she tried to blink away but refused to subside. And Tom just pulled her onto his lap and held her. He let her cry until she couldn't cry anymore. Finally he asked, "You gonna be okay?" "Yes," B'Elanna replied, her voice shaky, "I'm sorry I got so emotional." "That's what I'm here for," said Tom, stroking her hair. "Thank you," B'Elanna sighed. The chime rang suddenly, causing them both to jump. Tom got up to get it, after the door opened he called, "I think it's for you." B'Elanna got up, rubbing at her cheeks but knowing that she would still look like she was crying. When she got to the door she found Samantha and Naomi there waiting for her. After taking a look at B'Elanna's face Naomi asked, "Are you okay?" "Yeah," B'Elanna sniffed, "It's just been a long day." "Well, I just wanted to give you this," said Naomi handing her a folded up piece of paper. Looking at it B'Elanna found that it was a card. On the front was Naomi's Flotter Doll, crying and rubbing its eyes. Above the picture were some words, so B'Elanna read them aloud, "When I was lost and lonely, not quite sure of what to do, I cried and cried and cried some more, until I looked up and saw you."

B'Elanna opened the card and read, "You showed me things I'd never seen before, and explained them in terms I could understand. You told me everything but still saved me from the truth. You united people that had never actually worked together and we reached a common goal. You taught everyone to forget their rank and just to be a team. You made me feel helpful even though I might have hindered. And I, a child, was not your lesser, but just someone who didn't understand, so you taught me. Any ideas that I had weren't immediately discounted, but thought over and one was even used. You told me when something would not work and I got smarter for the next time. You took responsibility for me, even when you were working and Chell taught me that song. Then the warp core overloaded and though I was still asking questions you simply told me to run. You answered my questions later, which might have saved my life. Even as the core exploded, you wouldn't let me see the blast. You taught me a lesson in honor, courage, and respect that I would not have learned otherwise. Words cannot express what it was like for me today, but you were there to help me all along the way." Below the words was a picture of Naomi hugging Flotter and Flotter smiling. "I, I don't know what to say," B'Elanna stammered, "Did you write this yourself?" Naomi nodded proudly. Setting the card on a table by the door so it remained open, B'Elanna said, "It will stay here so I can see it whenever I come inside." B'Elanna then dropped to her knees and pulled Naomi into her embrace. Pulling Naomi back so that she could see her face B'Elanna asked, "Are you going to be okay? After all that's happened I mean." "Yeah, Naomi replied. "Getting back up to her feet B'Elanna whispered to Samantha and Tom, "The poor kid's going to be in therapy until she's forty."

Yeah, I know that I don't know how to end a story, it's a curse. But other than that, what'd you think. Tell me! Please? Also, I really didn't mean to offend anybody with Casper's definition of what these ghost people do. If I messed with anybody's beliefs, religious or otherwise, I am truly sorry. Please forgive me. If it makes you feel better, it contradicts what I believe too, but I had to give them some kind of motive.


End file.
